My first candle was one of those rainbow ones that spill all different colors as they burn. A taper candle. I got it from Hot Topic and lit it while writing.

I loved the mess it made and let the wax harden over my vanity shelf.

Proof and hope.

Proof that I had carved out time to write my heart’s content, and hope that I would get to again, have private time where I wasn’t disturbed.

It was magical. Page after page of poems, thoughts, and ideas. I’d throw them down on the bed and map them together.

When the candle burned down, I kept the wax, my first writer’s talisman.